HENRICO, Va. -- Richmond has advanced to its second Atlantic 10 Championship final appearance besting Duquesne 80-66 Saturday afternoon at Henrico Sports & Events Center.
The other championship finals appearance came in the 2008-09 season. The Spiders are searching for their first-ever Atlantic 10 Championship since joining the conference in 2001.
“I feel like we didn’t have a good start, but then that flipped,” Richmond coach Aaron Roussell said. “Just the want, the desire, I know everyone has that this time of year, but this is special, and it was really cool to watch. We tried to shrink everything like we’ve done all season, don’t look at the scoreboard, don’t look at the clock, win each possession. I think these guys were locked in defensively and the offense came.”
Richmond was led by All-Conference Second Team selection Addie Budnik’s 22 points, and six three-point baskets, both of which were season highs.
“We knew last time we played them the three was open,” she recalled. “That was a point of emphasis, seeing how they were playing us and that worked to our advantage. Grace (Townsend) did a great job distributing, we all shared the ball, had energy and the ball found me on the back end a lot and I was able to knock those down today.”
Not to be outdone, but Townsend, a first-team selection had a rounded game consisting of 17 points, seven rebounds and eight assists. First teamer Maggie Doogan, sixth Woman of the Year Rachel Ullstrom and Siobhan Ryan also provided sparks with her 13 points apiece.
Richmond’s defense held Duquesne to a 6-for-23 clip from three-point range and the Spiders were 16-for-18 from the free throw line. Richmond also recorded 20 assists for a second consecutive game.
Ayanna Townsend led Duquesne with her 13 points, while also grabbing seven rebounds. Amaya Hamilton also had an impact with her 12 points. Tess Myers also chipped in with her 10 points.
“I’d like to give a big thank you and I’m incredibly proud of our seniors and our whole entire team,” Duquesne coach Dan Burt stated. “Today we played with great energy, fight, spirit and grit. We talked about spirit and grit in our locker room for a long time this year. The senior class has really reestablished us as one of the best programs in the Atlantic 10, where we had been, and they did that. I’m not sad today by any stretch, we lost to a very well-coached, very good basketball team. We were playing our third game in three days and ran out of a little bit of gas and Richmond did some things that affected us.”
Duquesne was effective in the paint as Richmond looked to deny three-point looks. As a result, the Dukes went down low to the paint where it had a 12-2 advantage prior to the opening media timeout.
As the shot clock was set to expire, Megan McConnell went high post, to find a cutting Precious Johnson who laid the ball in the basket to create initial separation on the scoreboard.
While the paint was friendly to Duquesne, Richmond continued to change the game from beyond the arc. Budnik was repeatedly left with plenty of space on her three-point shots, making three in the first quarter, while the Dukes missed all four of their attempts. After one quarter, Richmond led 16-12.
In a similar vein to Friday’s quarterfinal game, the Spiders went on a 6-0 run and each of its opening four field goals in the quarter had an assist. When Townsend found Doogan for a layup, Richmond was up eight and Duquesne called its first timeout. The run was 19-7 for a nearly 10-minute period allowing the Spiders to take control.
A 6-0 Duquesne response had the game to within two points as Jerni Kiaku twice turned on the jets for layups, Budnik immediately struck a few seconds later with another three-point basket, keying a 8-0 run, during which the Dukes were held scoreless for 3:26. Richmond held a 37-27 lead at halftime.
The Spiders scored the first four points of the quarter, but Duquesne would score seven of the next nine, bringing the game back to within single digits. Richmond would respond by mirroring said run and comfortably led 53-41 as the Dukes went 2:49 without a field goal.
Duquesne struck first once more in the final quarter, but an 8-0 Spider run separated the teams by 18.
The Dukes cut the lead to 12 points and unsuccessfully played the foul game. When the final buzzer sounded, the player ran towards the far corner and celebrated.
Richmond will await its opponent for Sunday championship, to be determined later Saturday afternoon between Rhode Island and Saint Louis.
“This is about everything this team has worked on since June to really work towards this,” concluded Roussell.”